US nuclear regulators weaken safety rules

Looser regulations on aging power plants are undermining safety standards, which could escalate dangers in the event of an accident

By Jeff Donn / AP, LACEY TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY

Illustration: Mountain People

US federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards, or simply failing to enforce them, an investigation by The Associated Press (AP) has found.

Time after time, officials at the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have decided that original regulations were too strict, arguing that safety margins could be eased without peril, according to records and interviews.

The result? Rising fears that these accommodations by the commission are significantly undermining safety — and inching the reactors closer to an accident that could harm the public and jeopardize the future of nuclear power in the US.

Examples abound. When valves leaked, more leakage was allowed — up to 20 times the original limit. When rampant cracking caused radioactive leaks from steam generator tubing, an easier test of the tubes was devised, so plants could meet standards. Failed cables. Busted seals. Broken nozzles, clogged screens, cracked concrete, dented containers, corroded metals and rusty underground pipes — all of these and thousands of other problems linked to aging were uncovered in the AP’s yearlong investigation. All of them could escalate dangers in the event of an accident.

Yet despite the many problems linked to aging, not a single official body in government or industry has studied the overall frequency and potential impact on safety of such breakdowns in recent years, even as the NRC has extended the licenses of dozens of reactors.

Industry and government officials defend their actions and insist no chances are being taken. However, the AP investigation found that with billions of dollars and 19 percent of US’ electricity supply at stake, a cozy relationship prevails between the industry and its regulator, the NRC. Records show a recurring pattern: Reactor parts or systems fall out of compliance with the rules. Studies are conducted by the industry and government and all agree that existing standards are “unnecessarily conservative.” Regulations are loosened, and the reactors are back in compliance.

“That’s what they say for everything, whether that’s the case or not,” said Demetrios Basdekas, a retired NRC engineer. “They say: ‘We have all this built-in conservatism.’”

The ongoing crisis at the stricken, decades-old Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility in Japan has focused attention on the safety of plants elsewhere in the world; it prompted the commission to look at US reactors, and a report is due next month. But the factor of aging goes far beyond the issues posed by the disaster at Fukushima.

Commercial nuclear reactors in the US were designed and licensed for 40 years. When the first ones were being built in the 1960s and 1970s, it was expected that they would be replaced with improved models long before those licenses expired.

But that never happened. The 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, massive cost overruns, crushing debt and high interest rates ended new construction proposals for several decades.

Instead, 66 of the 104 operating units have been relicensed for 20 more years, mostly with scant public attention. Renewal applications are under review for 16 other reactors. By the standards in place when they were built, these reactors are old and getting older. Today, 82 reactors are more than 25 years old.